Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, Harper is saving our landfills by not using diapers anymore!!! I decided to potty train him today (Wed.) and it just so happened to be Earth Day. He did really well for his first day with underwear - all day. The biggest battle was to get the boy to put the underwear on!! I think he thought they were Carly and Chloe's so he kept saying all done. When I told him he needed to be a big boy like Dad, he immediately stepped right in. I know they say little girls are close to their Dad's, but Harper is Matt's number 1 fan and when he is around, I am liver mush!!! So, we are having accidents, but he knows how to hold it for an hour and a half to 2 hours!!! Pretty impressive. He does tell me he needs to go, after he goes, but that is all part of the learning process and he is doing great. So we are back to diapers only at night and underwear all day and at nap!!! Yes, one more kid out of those dreaded things and just one more to go!

Hair Cut

I was finally ready to chop the girls hair, so on Thursday I took them to get a new do. They look so cute!

Before shots:

After shots:

More Camping Pics

Thanks Deanna for your wonderful photography skills and capturing our trip on film!!

Our Tent

TJ, Deanna, and Cooper in front of their home!

The fishing crew

Relaxing Riffle Style


Harper reflecting about his night!

Cooper had just as much to reflect about!! Isn't this a beautiful dog - it is a cream Golden Retriever. He was a very good boy on the trip and now the girls have been using their jump ropes as leashes and tying each other up and pretending they are Cooper!

Chloe looking calm, cool, and collective while her marshmallow goes up in flames! She is hilarious!

What are you waiting for?

I read this insert in my Bible a couple of weeks ago, and I went back today to reread it. Here is the passage:
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare."
Waiting. Something we all do all the time, but something we sometimes aren't too good at!! We are at this waiting stage for our house. The point of waiting? God is busy at work! He uses our wait time to move us where he wants us to be. He has a plan and your waiting period is His way of readjusting the lives of others so that his ultimate desires will be fulfilled. Is waiting hard? Yes, especially when you are impatient. So sit back and let God take you for the ride!!!

Easter

Here are a few Easter pictures. We could not locate the camera (still packed somewhere from the camping trip), so we don't have any egg hunting or basket finding pictures! We got them all ready to take pics when we came home from church, and that is when we discovered it was missing, so we only had my cell phone to take the pics - UGH!!! Oh well at least I was able to take a few later on after naps.

Carly Faith

Harper Banks

Chloe Elise

I don't know how to switch this pic to stand up, but I will mess with it later - I have to go get girls ready for dance class.

The Devine-Riffle Camp Out!

Thursday we departed for our first family camping trip. We attempted last year and the weather did not cooperate, so we were more than ready to go this time around!

This is Carly - she worked very hard with Matt bungee cording all the totes down. Notice her work! Matt forgot to take them off and they actually stayed on the whole trip. When we got there we told Carly to take hers off, she did it with one little tug and it came right off! At least it stayed on for the ride down.

We arrived at Cane Creek (in Waxhaw) around 11:00 am. We unloaded the car and started to set up. TJ and Deanna were surprisingly right behind us at arrival (if you know these two, they are always late!) The weather was beautiful!! One of the first things that the girls had to try out was fishing! Matt let them do all the reeling in, which of course led to a very tangled up line. During the processes of untangling, low and behold, they caught a fish!!!! Matt told the girls to grab the line and those two little monkeys pulled the fish in with their "bare hands" on the line. By the time I ran down there, the fish was already in the water - doing the back float! The girls reenactment of what happened was hilarious. "When we got it out, Dad stepped on it. And it was wiggling all over. It needed it's Mommy, so we threw it back in the water. It was smooth and crunchy and its tail was very wet." All of this story included body motions, including what the fish's mouth looked like when Matt stepped on it. So funny!!!

For the rest of that evening, we cooked and hung out around the campfire. We had foil dinners and banana boats for dessert. YUMMY! The next day, we woke up and ate breakfast - until 10:00! We had bacon and eggs and donuts!! Yes, to those that know my track record with the donuts - we survived the cooking experience! (When I was about 12 yrs. old I decided to do this in my back yard with one of my friends. Everything was going well. I made a fire, cooked all the donuts, and then it came for me to put out the fire. Well, at 12 yrs. old I didn't know what water and hot oil do - I poured water all over the fire and then looked at the can of oil in the fire and proceeded to cool that down too. BAM! It exploded and my friend and I were burned all over the place. We ran as fast as we could to our pool to cool our sizzling skin, but we ended up with burn marks all over us. My mom thought I was out in the sun too long!! She had no clue that all of this took place until a while later when I let out the truth!!!) So, no one was burned and I was very careful with my oil this time! Deanna decided she was going to go on one of her 6 mile runs (she is absolutely insane and there was no way I would go with her) and she dragged TJ along. We decided to go on a hike. Chloe wasn't too graceful with the stumps, so within 5 minutes, she had fallen and cut up both of her wrists and was bleeding nicely. So I opted to take her back and bandage her up. From that point on, Carly would tell Chloe to look down when she walked and to look out for the stumps - "If you see a stump, you will fall." (that was my expert advice)

Well, then the rain came! At nap time, we had a short storm. Just perfect for nap time. We all took a nice nap and it was over by 3:00. Then we had sausage and apple pies for dinner. About 9:00 pm we had our second batch of storms come rolling through - this was the "red" storm. The kids were already sleep and they slept through the entire storm!!! There were some pretty rough points during the storm when the tent was swaying back and forth and the rain was coming in on us!! And yet, the troopers kept sleeping!! Cooper (TJ and Deanna's dog) slept right through it too. The next morning I picked up Chloe's sleeping bag (luckily it has an air mattress in it), and it was a raft!! There was water all under her! She was floating that night! We were very wet. Chloe picked up her jacket to get out and she said it was wet, Carly said, "Just put it on Sissy!" These kids are such little campers! It ended up being a group consensus to pack up and go home to dry out! So, the camping trip was over, but it was a blast. The girls kept saying, "Camping is so fun!" We will definitely be going again!!!

Breakfast - Harper style!

P.S. I may post some more pics - Deanna said she would send me the ones she took - which are great, so I will add them when I can.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Just had to post this pic - is this Daddy Jr. or what!!! He is even plugging his ears to drown out all the women voices in the background!!! Harper loves this car and his "dhone!"